Define Love For Me
by AllieFelton
Summary: Lily Evans returns to Hogwarts this year with huge news! One she is Head Girl, and two she’s – engaged! Everyone knows that she hates James Potter with all her being, but James will never let her go without a fight... [FULL SUMMARY INSIDE]
1. Engaged

**Summary:** Lily Evans returns to Hogwarts this year with huge news! One she is Head Girl, and two she's – engaged! Everyone knows that she hates James Potter with all her being, but James will never let her go without a fight. What'll happen when Lily's feelings start changing and she starts falling in love with James Potter – and falling out of love with her fiancé?

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**Define Love For Me** by **AllieFelton**

**Chapter One: **_Engaged_

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Lily Evans walked through the Hogwarts Express, looking into all the compartments to check which one held her friends. She let out a loud groan as she gave up and decided to just go to the Heads' Compartment early. At this rate, she would never find her friends. As she started walking towards the front of the train, she heard a shrill shriek behind her that she recognized.

"Lillian Abigail Evans," said Lily's best friend in the whole entire world, besides Genevieve Wilkes and Chloe Emmett, Nikki Pennington (yes, it is quite a mouthful to say! Try saying it three times fast, wink).

"I've been looking for you forever," Lily sighed happily, walking quickly to enter the compartment. When she stepped in, she saw Genevieve and Chloe was in there also, along with Genevieve's longtime boyfriend, Gregory Thompson.

"Well – we've been _waiting_ for you forever," Genevieve giggled. She was always turning things around so that she was never blamed for a thing. Do you know of any people that always make you feel guilty, even when you haven't done a thing wrong? That was Genevieve in simple terms.

"Help us, please," Chloe begged jokingly. She nodded towards the corner of the compartment where Genevieve and Gregory were locking lips as if there were no tomorrow. Chloe made a vomiting motion and mocked Genevieve by making kissing faces.

"Even though I may have my eyes closed, I can still hear you," Genevieve snapped.

"Sorry," Chloe sighed. As soon as Genevieve went back to kissing Gregory, Chloe whispered so only Lily and Nikki could hear, "How can anyone possibly hear anything when she's making noises that can compare to that of a fully grown wooly mammoth?"

Lily laughed. It was good to be back with her friends. She sighed heavily. Now that she was entering her final year at Hogwarts, she found herself thinking more and occasionally became depressed to think she wouldn't be coming back to Hogwarts next year for another year of magical learning.

"Lily?" Nikki poked Lily hard on her shoulder. Lily snapped out of her thoughts and stared blankly at Nikki and Chloe, who both were looking at her strangely.

"Sorry?" Lily looked up.

"Honestly," Nikki sighed.

"We just asked you what you wanted to tell us? Remember that, and I quote, 'mind blowing, butterfly twittering, hard core, action packed' news you wanted to tell us?" Chloe rolled her eyes and gave a lighthearted laugh.

"Well . . ." Lily smiled.

"Oh, let me guess," Nikki butt in. "You got the position of Head Girl?"

"Yes!" Lily shrieked. She quickly pulled out her wallet, filled with muggle money that needed to be exchanged for wizard money, and pulled out her Head Girl badge she kept in there for safekeeping.

"Well, that's hardly exciting because it's so predictable," Chloe rolled her eyes. Then she smiled and leaned in for a hug, "But congrats anyway, Lily."

"Yeah, congratulations!" Nikki smiled. "But there _must_ be some other news. Isn't there? I mean, Head Girl is exciting and all but even _you_ aren't that much of a nerd!"

"Hey!" Lily frowned, looking especially offended as her friends laughed.

"I'm kidding," Nikki, giggled, "you know that."

"Yeah, and you're right. There is other news," Lily bounced up and down with excitement.

"Which is?" Chloe asked, nodding her head as if that would make Lily spill the news faster.

"I'll tell you as soon as soon as those two lovebirds quit swapping saliva," Lily said, pointing at Gregory and Genevieve who were still in lip lock mode. Nikki and Chloe gave each other a mischievous look.

"One, two, three," Nikki and Chloe said in unison before pushing themselves in between Gregory and Genevieve. "Wake up, San Francisco! It is now time for _The Lily Corner_!"

Gregory looked bewildered as he was pushed against the back of his seat and Genevieve looked ready to kill as she realized that her lips were still puckered. Nikki and Chloe laughed out loud and gave each other a high-five.

"What the heck is a San Francisco?" Gregory asked, completely clueless.

"It's a city in the States," Nikki said. "I used to live there for about two months and I always watched this show that started off like that. Quite amusing, actually."

"Shut up. It is now Lily time," Chloe said eagerly.

"Well," Lily bit her bottom before holding out her left hand to all her friends, happily presenting a gorgeous ring on her ring finger. Chloe and Nikki exchanged wide-eyed glances before letting out excited shrieks while Genevieve let her jaw drop.

"No way!" Nikki grabbed Lily's hand, dragging Lily down with it, and examined the ring.

"What's-his-face proposed?" Chloe screeched. She was jumping up and down so enthusiastically that her long platinum blonde hair, which was tied into a messy bun, came undone.

"What's-his-face has a name," Nikki rolled her eyes at her friend. "It's Nolan, duh!"

"No, it's _Noah_," Lily let out an exasperated groan. Her friends could be so dense sometimes.

"You beat me to the punch!" Genevieve kidded. She stuck out her tongue before giving Lily a hug. "I am so happy for you!"

"Yes, same here but does _Noah_ have a surname?" Nikki dragged out Noah to show Lily that she was listening.

"Yes, he does. I am going to be Mrs. Noah Benson," Lily said proudly. She bit her bottom lip before she started daydreaming about her future husband when her whole train of thought came to a crash when she heard someone let slip the word _Potter_.

"What did you say?" Lily growled.

"Well, Nikki said," Chloe started, receiving a panicked look from Nikki as Nikki started making motions, telling Chloe to shut up, "that Lily Benson doesn't sound half as good as Lily Potter!"

"You are dead to me," Nikki muttered to Chloe. Nikki braced herself for the wrath of Lily but instead of receiving screams comparable to that of a banshee's, Lily simply said, "So much for you being maid of honor."

"Oh, that all?" Nikki sighed with a smile. Then realizing what Lily had said, she shot up and gasped, "What?"

"Well, look at that," Chloe said, looking out of the crack in the sliding door, "right on cue!"

"What?" Lily asked quizzically, cocking her head to one side. She looked to see what Chloe was looking at and saw the last person, or persons, she wanted to see right now. "Why me? I was having a perfectly good time and there he is, ready to pop my bubble!"

"Why, hello there, Evans," a suave and manly voice said.

"Shove off, Potter," Lily groaned. She turned around to face away from James Potter, the most cockiest and bigheaded playboy at Hogwarts, next to his best friend Sirius Black, of course.

"Well, we," James pointed towards his friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, all, minus Peter, of whom were extremely good looking, "just heard through the grapevine that you were named Head Girl this year and thought that the Head Boy should escort the Head Girl to the Heads' Compartment."

Lily sighed. She would do anything to get James to shut up, "Fine. Remus let's go."

Lily stood and walked out, expecting Remus to follow her but instead, Remus said, "Oh, no. I'm not Head Boy, Lily."

"Oh? Then who?" Lily asked looking back and forth between the remaining Marauders, the self-proclaimed name of the hunky three, actually four but nobody ever counted Peter. She really didn't want an answer now.

"Me," James Potter stepped out with a big smile on his face.

"_You?_" Lily gasped. She looked back and forth between the Marauders and her friends to see if this was a joke. Then she saw it. The Head Boy badge that was shining on James's shirt made it official. She felt as if she were going to faint at any given moment. "Was Dumbledore on crack or something when he made this decision?"

"That's what I thought," James chuckled. Lily couldn't help but notice the dimples on either side of his cheek, which looked incredibly cute. _No, bad Lily! You cannot think that!_ Lily scolded herself in her mind.

"B-but, b-but," Lily stuttered.

"Look, Lily," James sighed. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his muggle jeans, "I really have changed over the summer and I was just wondering if we could be friends." He extended his left hand to her.

Lily stared at his hand, trying to figure him out, "Wrong hand, moron." Lily giggled.

"No, I've got the right hand," James ruffled his hair with his right hand. "I'm using my left hand because I can't wholly promise you that I won't occasionally ask you out."

"Then no deal," Lily crossed her arms.

"Please," James looked extremely sincere. Just that look made Lily feel guilty even though she had done nothing wrong. She gave in and said, "Fine." She shook his hand with his left hand.

"Hey, nice rock, Evans," James smiled. Suddenly, realizing where that ring was placed, his smile faded. "Don't tell me that that's a –"

"We're going to be late, Potter," Lily quickly walked away.

James looked back in the compartment where Lily's friends were now conversing with Sirius, Remus, and Peter. They all looked away when they saw James look at them. They obviously knew something about Lily's ring but they weren't going to tell James that easily. With a sigh of frustration, he started walking to the Heads' Compartment, intending to ask Lily all about it.

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**Author's Note:** This is my first story so I hope it wasn't too bad to read. Reviewing wouldn't hurt, either! Usually, I'm not much of a writer but this story has been stuck in my mind for some time now and it has been _killing_ me to not write this so here it is! Literally, it took me about fifteen to twenty minutes to write this. _That's_ how excited I was. Scary, huh? Thanks for taking the time to read this and I'll get the next chapter up pronto. Don't worry, I won't do the '_Give me twenty thousand reviews or else I won't update_!' thing. That's not how I roll. I update when I feel like – or whenever I feel like I'm going to burst from bottling up all these ideas:)

And remember . . . even though I love reviews, I'd rather have five well thought out reviews than five thousand that just read, 'Cool. Update soon.' But I won't mind if you must, hehe.

- Allie

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	2. Made To Be Broken

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**Define Love For Me** by **AllieFelton**

**Chapter Two: **_Made To Be Broken_

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Quickly shuffling her feet, Lily looked back to see James was slowly making his way towards the Heads' Compartment. She smiled. Maybe he really had no intention on asking Lily about her engagement ring. Lily accelerated her pace and started daydreaming about the beautiful wedding she and Noah were planning.

Meanwhile, James felt his stomach churning painfully. Lily _couldn't_ be engaged, right? She was, after all, only sixteen (though, she would soon be seventeen). Just the idea of her having had a boyfriend made him dizzy. He didn't remember Lily ever telling him she had a boyfriend. Did she?

* * *

_**Flashback (February 9, 1975):**_

"_Hey, Evans," James Potter flashed Lily his charming smile as she looked up from the mounds of homework she was working on._

_She glared at him and returned her attention to her homework, "No, I won't go out with you."_

_James gave her a mocking gasp. A fake pained look was shown on his face as he clutched his heart in a dramatic motion and cried, "I didn't even say anything yet. I can't believe you would think of me as that dimwitted, Evans!"_

"_Well, I do," Lily gave him a teasing smile. "Besides – I can practically read you like a book!"_

"_Wow. Look there! That's another sign that we belong together. Don't you think, Evans?" James said hopefully._

"_No," Lily said promptly._

"_Come on, look at me, please," James, pleaded._

_Lily slammed her quill down on her desk and looked up, gritting her teeth. James looked thoughtful for a moment before he ruined the moment with his usual question._

"_Will you go out with me?" James chuckled._

"_Ugh, I can't believe you!" Lily started gathering her books and stood up, furiously shoving the chair underneath the desk. With her nose up in the air, she screamed, "NO!"_

"_And why not, may I ask?" James frowned. _Maybe I should have picked a less crowded place,_ James thought as he looked around the Common Room to see all the Gryffindors looking at the pair with much interest._

"_Because you're bigheaded, obnoxious, a player, rude, annoying, and if you didn't know," Lily paused to catch her breath, "I _have_ a boyfriend!" With that being said, Lily snatched up her belongings and angrily marched up the stairs to go to her dormitory._

_James looked back and smiled to his best friend, Sirius Black, who happened to be standing there at that moment, "She so wants me."_

"_Have you had your medication today, Prongs?" Sirius patted his friend on the shoulder and shook his head with mock pity. James ignored his comment and started thinking about what Lily had said. He didn't believe her. She only made up the boyfriend bit to keep him away from her. He thought hard and couldn't recall ever seeing Lily with anyone at school or Hogsmeade, she was always with her friends._

"_She doesn't have a boyfriend," James sighed happily._

* * *

James opened the door to the Heads' Compartment to see Lily sitting at the window seat, gazing out the window. Her beautiful red hair, about shoulder-length with gorgeous curls at the end, was blowing elegantly around her face and her stunning emerald eyes had a distant look to it.

"Oh, Professor, I –" Lily looked up, expecting to see Professor McKnight, the professor in charge of most student activities, but instead saw James. "Oh, it's you."

"Ol' McKnight not here yet?" James grinned.

"No," Lily quickly replied, returning to her window gazing.

"Look, Evans. Can I ask you something?" James asked.

"No," Lily said, almost mechanically.

"Well I'm going to ask you anyway," James sighed. Looking once more at the beautiful diamond ring on her finger (it was a diamond on a simple silver band, Tiffany & Co.) he asked, "Are you engaged?"

Lily turned around to stare at James. She couldn't help but notice that his voice had cracked when he asked and he – she couldn't believe it, but he looked as if he were going to cry.

"And is that any of your business?" Lily asked.

"So, you are?"

Lily paused for a moment and thought carefully before saying, "Yes."

"How _could_ you?" James hissed angrily. His eyes looked so strangely red but that was nothing compared to the color his face was now taking on.

"What do you mean, 'how could _I_?' I have done _nothing_ wrong," Lily snapped.

"In case you haven't noticed –"

"Noticed _what_?" Lily said angrily. "No, _you_ are the one that hasn't noticed a thing! _You_ and_ I _are not together! _Noah_ and _I_ are! You can quit this stupid charade of yours now, you know. This has been going on way too long. I mean, how can one person pretend to love someone for this many years? It _isn't_ funny, Potter! So, stop it! It's game over now."

James was taken aback. He couldn't believe Lily thought that he was playing a game with her. It hurt badly and he had to bite his tongue to keep himself from saying something that would shove Lily away from him forever.

"So, isn't the Great James Potter going to say anything?" Lily growled, almost daring him to say something.

"I really do love you Lily," James said softly.

"Well, game or not, stop!" Lily groaned. She placed her head in her hands and muttered, "What a great way to start off the school year."

"Well, I'm _sorry_ if I can't control my emotions!" James let out a sigh of frustration and sat down across from Lily. "Can't you tell how much I love you from the past years?"

"I can tell how much of a player you are," Lily rolled her eyes. "How many girls did you date and dump last year? I think, last time I checked, the number was pretty close to thirty? No, I'm sorry, thirty-_one_!"

"That's because I was trying to get over you last year, Evans. I was trying to find someone I could really love but do you know how hard to it is to stop loving someone? I can't do that, Evans, no one can. The only thing I realized from all of that is that I really do love you and I want to be with you!" James said loudly, hoping to scream some sense into her.

"I'm afraid that can never happen," Lily stared at him viciously.

"Why not?" James asked.

"Are you really that mindless?" Lily gasped, looking at him strangely. Rolling her eyes, she showed James her ring once more and looked out the window once again to ignore James.

"Engagements are made to be broken," James smirked.

"W-what?" Lily stuttered. _Please tell me he is not going to do anything_, Lily prayed.

"I will get you back, Evans," James smiled, apparently deciding not to let her engagement bother him.

"You never had me," Lily said coldly, hoping to get him off her case.

"Oh, but you're wrong," James said mysteriously. He then leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes with a big smile on his face.

"What? What are you talking about?" Lily asked. She received no response from James and she started getting nervous. He never had her! Or did he? Lily shook her head. That was impossible.

"By the way, Evans. Is your boyfriend a muggle?" James asked suddenly. Lily didn't bother answering and James just said, "Thought so."

"_Fiancé_," Lily corrected him, angrily wondering what he meant by 'thought so'. Lily opened her mouth to ask James what he meant but was interrupted when Professor McKnight entered the compartment to start the Heads' Meeting.

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**Author's Note:** Thanks for all the positive reviews! I was really surprised when I saw that I had _six_ reviews! Not too bad for a Harry Potter fanfiction, you know, where everybody updates there stories at least ten times a minutes so it is impossible to ever see your story on the front page! Hope this chapter was up to par and everyone liked it!

To **names are overrated:** I just had to update today! Yes, I felt like I was going to burst if I didn't update soon so I just had to!

Hope everyone is having a good day! I might update again today because I have no school (Yom Kippur) and I have finished all my homework, projects, studying, etc… So I have a lot of extra time. Many of my friends have gone on vacation, lucky them, for an extended vacation so… yes, I'm bored silly!

- Allie

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	3. Obsessed, Mr Potter?

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**Define Love For Me** by **AllieFelton**

**Chapter Three: **_Obsessed, Mr. Potter?_

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"Lily, my dear, when are you going to show us the pictures?" Nikki giggled. The four girls all took their seats at the Gryffindor table and soon rounded up on Lily. Lily sighed as she took out a pouch from the pocket of her robe and took out the pictures that she slid in just before she left for the Hogwarts Express.

Chloe snatched the pictures up faster than the other girls could say 'quidditch' and her jaw dropped as she looked through each picture. With a disbelieving look, she said, "You landed _that_ hunk?"

"Are you saying I'm ugly?" Lily frowned.

"Oh, no! No, your beautiful," Chloe quickly replied, then with her back turned, she coughed, "NOT!"

"Hey!" Lily huffed.

"I'm kidding. You know that, Lillian!" Chloe smiled. She looked down at her hands to continue looking through the pictures when she noticed they were no longer in her care. She looked left and right and realized Nikki and Genevieve had stolen them from her, "Hey, I was still drooling over Landon Hemmingway over there!" Chloe giggled, making reference to the extremely famous, and witches' man, superstar.

"For muggle pictures," Nikki, who was pureblood through and through, smiled, "these are pretty good."

"Pretty good?" Genevieve frowned. "What are you talking about? He brightens the picture and makes it absolutely _gorgeous_!"

"Oh my gosh!" Nikki screamed. Lily quickly turned to see if her friend was hurt or anything but instead saw Nikki smiling as if she had petroleum jelly rubbed on her teeth and her face had grown quite red.

"Are you okay?" Lily asked, extremely concerned.

"He's _shirtless_ in this picture!" Nikki squealed. Quickly standing up, Nikki screamed out to the entire Great Hall, which was buzzing with excitement about the new school year, "WHO WANTS TO SEE PICTURES OF LILY EVANS' HUNKY HALF NAKED FIANCE?"

Lily, Chloe, and Genevieve immediately pulled the crazy girl down to the ground and Lily screamed, "Are you mad?"

"Forgot my medication today, sorry," Nikki giggled jokingly.

Lily stared at her, very seriously, and said, "Unfortunately, you did."

"Hardy, har, har," Nikki rolled her eyes, "I'll be sure to remember next time."

"Look what the cat dragged," Chloe grumbled as she picked at her golden plate set in front of her. Lily turned around and groaned when she saw James and his friends walking towards them.

"More like the dog, the stag, the rat, and the werewolf," Lily huffed, remembering the secrets of those four boys she had found out last year.

"We're here about the half-naked picture, Evans," James said with his chest puffed out. "As Head Boy, I feel it as my duty to confiscate all inappropriate photos."

Lily glared at James before coldly replying, "Why, James. I never knew you were that type of man." With that being said, she stuck her nose in the air before turning back to her friends.

Sirius nudged James in the ribs and whispered, "Mate, I think she just called you gay."

"No way, I didn't notice, mate," James huffed sarcastically. James turned back to Lily and her friends, who were giggling over the pictures, and tried to sneak a peak of her fiancé. Lily's gorgeous auburn locks swayed so they blocked James' view of the pictures. James was about to speak up when a booming voice coughed, "Ahem."

Immediately, the whole Great Hall was silenced as they looked up to see their headmaster, and greatest wizard of all time, Professor Albus Dumbledore. The usual twinkle in his eye gave him a grandfatherly look but anyone who knew him knew that he was always up and about.

"Welcome back to Hogwarts for another year of excitement, faculty, previous students – and ghosts" Dumbledore chuckled as he stroked his long white beard, "and may I say welcome to those who are joining us just this year?" Professor Dumbledore continued with his usual start-of-the-school-year speech as Sirius dragged James to a spot at the table, far from Lily.

"Get a grip, mate," Sirius shook James to get his attention.

"You say something?" James asked, not taking his eyes off of Lily for a second.

"Sirius is right, James," Remus butt in, finally putting down his 1000-page book. "You have been obsessing over Lily and her fiancé ever since we got here. You've mentioned them at _least_ _three-hundred_ times since we arrived at Hogwarts – _one hour ago_!"

"Bloody bastard," James grumbled, not even listening to Remus. "I work to get Lily to love me for years and he just swoops in and steals her?"

"Three hundred and one," Remus grumbled.

"M-maybe you should j-just get over her," Peter Pettigrew, probably the most wimpiest and cowardly boy you'll ever meet, stuttered. James gave Peter a wide-eyed look before he returned to spying on Lily. Sirius sighed and wondered how he got stuck with such a neurotic and obsessive friend.

"Sirius, this isn't half as bad as that time you were completely set on winning over Emily Hartford," Remus chuckled, recalling those funny times. "Remember when you snuck into her dormitory just so you could get a whiff of her hair? And that time when you nicked her knickers and put them under your pillow to have something that reminded you of her at night? And that time when you –"

"We get it, we get it," Sirius grumbled. Then he said, "This reminds me of a certain someone, doesn't it? Name starts with a J, ends with an ames."

"Don't even compare me to him!" James said, pretending to be offended. "As I recall, about a week after she _reluctantly_ agreed to date him – and was starting to warm up to Sirius – he dumped her!"

"She was _clingy_!" Sirius debated.

"No she wasn't," Remus put in. "You, Sirius Black, playboy of Hogwarts, are just afraid of a true relationship!"

"Am not," Sirius rebutted.

"Are too," Remus said.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"NOT!"

"TOO!"

"Stop!" James shouted, completely annoyed with his immature friends. "You two don't have to go and start acting like a bunch of first years!"

"Sorry," Sirius and Remus laughed. Peter awkwardly looked down at his feet under the table, unsure of what to do while the rest of his friends were laughing with each other.

"Now I have only two words to say," Dumbledore concluded his _long_ speech (James swore Dumbledore made it longer every year on purpose to get back at James for jinxing one of Dumbledore's lemon drops, though Dumbledore said he forgave him), "_Semper prosperus_."

Almost immediately, a gigantic selection of food appeared right in front of them. Everything from turkey, chicken, pasta, rice, Yorkshire pudding, and much more was now at the disposal of the magical children.

"Cheers," Sirius said with a hungry twinkle in his eye as he started digging into his food rather fast. People around him looked at him disgustingly, though a couple of girls looked at him with wild passion in their eyes.

"I don't get how he could be choking down ten thousand things at once and still be charming," Remus frowned.

"Hey, what can I say? I'm a ladies' man," Sirius flashed a smile at a fifth year girl, causing her to swoon.

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"So, Lily, when are you going to meet that gorgeous hunk of yours again?" Genevieve smiled.

"Yeah. That could be a problem as you go to a _boarding school_," Nikki sighed.

"Oh, I worked it all out. Professor Dumbledore told me that I could leave on the weekends to see him!" Lily grinned. Thoughts of her brown-haired, blue-eyed, tall, dark, and handsome fiancé left her smiling so wide that she looked as if she were mad. "Would you like to come with me?"

"YES!" The three other girls shrieked happily, Nikki spewed the food in her mouth all the table.

"I'd love an invitation, too," a voice said from behind Lily.

Without turning around, she knew exactly who it was. Her blood boiled and she let out a frustrated groan. "How is it that every time I say something you're _right_ behind me, Potter?"

"Chance? Luck? Fate?" James smiled, ruffling his already messy hair.

"Don't do that, it looks awful," Lily scrunched up her nose. _No, it looks so incredibly cute! Stop denying the facts Lily!_ Lily heard her inner conscience screaming at her. She pushed the thought out of her head and continued to glare at James, who continued ruffling his hair to annoy Lily.

"So, do I get an invite?" James smiled. Lily just brushed off his question and returned to her friends, leaving a frustrated James behind her. Muttering quietly under his breath as he walked back to his seat, incredibly upset, James whispered, "I'll never let _him_ have you, Lily."

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**Author's Note:** Well, sorry for the very long wait. School has been hectic and I've been going crazy studying for tests, quizzes, and such. It's pandemonium! Walking in the halls is pretty dangerous too, hehe. Thank you so much for the encouraging reviews everyone! Though this chapter _was_ a bit disappointing to me, I promise this story will get so much better. Next update won't be as long a wait as it was today, I promise! But if it _is_ long I promise I'll update two chapters!

For the next chapter, if you have suggestions I'll take those into account, too:)

- Allie


	4. Author's Note, Sorry!

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**Author's Note **from _Allie Felton_

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Hello readers! I'm very sorry about the lack of update b-

ut it has been quite crazy for me! I have tests and quizzes

almost everyday and the amount of homework my teach-

ers give me should be illegal! And so, because of all of

this stress, I have been experiencing the dreaded illness

every writer hopes they never have – **Writer's Block**!

I swear, I have been writing and rewriting the new chap-

ter but no matter what I do it never sounds right! I'll ha-

ve the chapter up by tomorrow! Sound good? Oh, and if

you would be willing to help me with this question, I'd

very much appreciate it: Should I **continue** or **discont-**

**inue** this story? Just wondering what people think. Even

if you write discontinue, I think I'd still write it. I'm h-

aving some fun writing this!

Sorry for the huge Author's Note! Well, feedback wo-

uld be nice, hehe. Thank you!

- Allie

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P.S. I'm sorry about this! I really do hate it when peopl-

e update their stories but it turns out to be an author's n-

ote! I just did this so people wouldn't think I have disc-

ontinued my story! And thank you so much to all of the

people who have reviewed, read, and favorited my sto-

ry! Believe it or not, it has gotten **_995_** hits! That's awe-

some, thank you!

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	5. First Day of Term

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**Define Love For Me** by **AllieFelton**

**Chapter Four: **_First Day of Term_

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"What is the difference between Brinkle Root and a Holt Stone?" Professor Slughorn asked in the midst of his boring and monotonous (first day of term) lecture. He looked around the class with a smile but saw that no one had raised their hand. "It's okay, don't be shy!" the professor encouraged people to raise their hands.

There was a long silence, interrupted by the snores of those asleep, and Professor Slughorn finally said, "Miss Evans, please explain."

Lily jerked up from her note taking and looked next to her, where Nikki was sitting, and gave her a '_Why me?_' look. Nikki softly chuckled and returned to doodling on her notebook as if thinking, _naïve Lily, when is she ever going to learn_?

"Oh, well, sir," Lily smiled shyly. She quickly flipped through her notes, though she already knew the answer, so that it wouldn't look like she was trying to brag. "It really is quite simple. The difference is that the base of a Brinkle Root is powdered with pixie dust, occasionally poisonous, and a Holt Stone is made entirely of pixie dust!"

"Excellent! Ten points to Gryffindor!" Professor Slughorn smiled as he raised his hands up in the air. All the Slytherins in the classroom gave Lily a dirty glare before they returned their attention their eccentric teacher. "I hope you all wrote that down in your notes because I will not be repeating it. Perhaps it may find its way onto your next quiz, too!"

The class let out a loud groan and whispering was heard throughout as the students tried getting the answers from other students. Lily felt a nudge on her right and saw Nikki mouthing, '_What was that you said?_' while pointing at her notebook. Rolling her eyes, Lily took Nikki's notebook and quickly jot down the notes. With a smile of thanks, Nikki returned to drawing on her book.

"Maywood is a complex ingredient that adds texture and variety to this sleeping draught. If it is fatally used it –" Professor Slughorn continued his speech but was interrupted by the bell. Students quickly shot out of their seats and headed for the door. Lily gathered her books quickly and unfortunately was one of the unlucky few that got out last.

"Oh, Miss Evans," Professor Slughorn started making his way over to Lily. Lily groaned and repeatedly called herself stupid in her mind.

"Yes, Professor?" Lily smiled sweetly.

"I was wondering if you would be joining in on this evening's festivities concerning the Slug Club?" Professor Slughorn asked. Lily could not help but notice that he had grown a beard over the summer and now reminded Lily of an overstuffed Santa Claus.

"Uh, well," Lily, stuttered, trying to make up a good excuse to get her out.

"You will? Marvelous!" Professor Slughorn laughed.

"No wait, Professor!" Lily stopped Professor Slughorn as he made his way over to Esmeralda Ault, whose aunt was the head of an incredibly famous broom developing company. Professor Slughorn stopped and looked over to Lily. "I have an engagement with someone tonight, sorry!"

"Oh, well you could always cancel –"

"Thank you, Professor, I knew you'd understand!" Lily quickly ducked out before the Potions master could say anything. Lily knew perfectly well that he was talking about canceling her personal engagement but Lily was happy to have any excuse to get out of those wretched meetings.

"Lily, you made it out alive!" Nikki exclaimed, running over to Lily.

"With no thanks to you! You ditched me!" Lily grumbled, shoving her Potions book into her bag.

"I'm sorry," Nikki sniffed, making puppy eyes, "but I'm allergic to that room!"

Lily rolled her eyes, "Then how is it that you manage to stay alive during class?"

"Because my medicine happens to sit two seats behind me!" Nikki sighed, thinking about her crush, Adam McKinnon. Nikki had somehow developed a major infatuation with Adam that day when she passed by him in the hallway. She claimed it was "love at first sight" but Lily claimed it was bullshit.

"Classes only started today," Lily reminded Nikki as the two started walking to the Great Hall for lunch. "You cannot possibly like him _that_ much!"

"Well, its Friday so anything is possible," Nikki smiled, going off in her own little dream world.

"Why on earth would they start classes on a Friday? Are they _trying_ to tease us?" Lily sighed, extremely upset.

"I like it. You come back for a little and then you relax," Nikki explained. "I like it."

"Well, I don't."

"Whatever," Nikki sighed.

"At least we have one more class after lunch!" Lily said happily.

"Oh joy, be still my heart!" Nikki sarcastically said.

"Well, you don't have to be mean about it," Lily huffed.

The two girls started talking and gossiping as they made their way to the Great Hall. When they got there, they immediately seated themselves at the Gryffindor table next to Chloe and Genevieve, who were both talking to a few Hufflepuff guys.

"So, anyways, today's a Friday so that means I can visit Noah," Lily informed Nikki.

"So?" Nikki asked.

"So! That means you can come _with_ me to visit him!" Lily cleared it up for her friend.

"Really?" Nikki gasped, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Yeah."

"Yes!"

"What's going on, girls?" Chloe asked, removing herself from the Hufflepuff 7th years and seating herself across the duo. Chloe immediately grabbed some sandwiches and dug in, Genevieve following suit.

"Lily has invited us to meet her fiancé!" Nikki blurted out. All three girls started shrieking, getting many weird looks from the other houses.

"Wait a minute," Lily frowned. Last time she checked, she had invited _Nikki_ only. Noticing her friends weren't listening to her, Lily let it go. "Yeah, we have to get to Dumbledore's office by 6:00 p.m. tonight so that we can floo into London."

"Terrific!" Chloe shouted.

"I need to pick out an outfit!" Genevieve suddenly thought.

"Why? You don't need to look good for him. He wouldn't mind if you showed up in tattered overalls, actually," Lily said, biting into her biscuit.

"Yeah, but this is your fiancé we're talking about. As your friends, we need to make a good and lasting impression on this Noah," Genevieve explained as if it were the most easiest concept on earth. Actually, it sort of was.

"Fine, do whatever you feel like," Lily waved Genevieve off, grabbing another biscuit. Suddenly, she felt two strong arms grab her waist and she shrieked. "ACK!"

"Surprise you?" a deep male voice chuckled. Lily felt herself heat up and found that she was emitting a low growling sound.

"Potter, get your grubby hands off my waist before I hex you into oblivion!" Lily barked.

"Calm down, Evans," James laughed. "I'm not kidnapping you or anything." Abruptly, he stopped and thought out loud, "Hey that idea isn't half bad!"

"I mean it, Potter!" Lily shrieked, pulling out her wand and pointing it at James' head.

"Fine, I surrender," James threw his hands up and slowly backed away, his smile still plastered on his face. Lily frowned but couldn't help but want to kiss those smiling lips. _No, wait. _WHAT_ did I just think? No, bad Lily! Don't go for bad guys, they'll break your heart and besides, you're with Noah_.

"Hello, Evans? You still there?" James' hand flew up and down in front of Lily's face. Her eyes fluttered as she looked up to see James looking at her quizzically.

"Please go away now," Lily groaned.

"No can do," James said. "Sirius there is flirting it up with your friend and I can't just leave my best mate like that."

"Oh, he's managing well," Lily turned around to see Sirius and Nikki about half an inch apart from each other looking as if they were an old married couple. A few seconds later they locked lips and Lily turned away, disgusted.

"Wow, never thought she'd be an easy one," James' eyes widened in surprise. Lily glared daggers at him and he slowly backed away. "Alrighty then – uh, I'll be going. See you in Defense Against the Dark Arts!"

With that James left.

"Wait! I have Defense Against the Dark Arts next? He's in my class?" Lily groaned. Leave it to James to memorize her schedule before she did.

"Huh, maybe he really likes you. I don't know, just throwing out random thoughts," Nikki said sarcastically.

"Shut up. He's only into me because I'm giving him a challenge."

"Sometimes you can be so stupid, Lily."

"Like when?" Lily huffed angrily.

The two bickered on about James' "crush" on Lily with Genevieve butting in with her opinions every now and then. When time came for DADA, Lily made sure to get there early so she could save herself a seat away from James. The class went fairly well, except for James' constant need to eavesdrop on Lily's conversations with Alice Weiss. That, though, was completely different as James found out a huge, and I mean _HUGE_, piece of information.

"I can't believe you get to leave Hogwarts to meet your fiancé every weekend! How – how romantic!" Alice sighed.

"I know," Lily smiled, "and I get to see him again tonight!"

"See who, Evans?" James asked. Lily froze. She did not need James knowing about her weekend trips.

"Well, uh, M-Madame Pomfrey, of course! I've gotten a horrible blister from Potions class! Just terrible! Uh, carry on with your own business, Potter! Don't butt into _my_ life!" Lily glared at James.

"Fine," James said quickly, a little too quickly for Lily. As she watched James go back to his seat, Lily couldn't help but feel uneasy. Even as Alice started conversation again, Lily knew James was planning on something. She just didn't know what.

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**Author's Note: **One thing I must say is that you guys are all just great! I have received **11** reviews since my last update (which I am sorry to say was an Author's Note). Trust me, I hate those Author's Note chapters so I won't be doing much of that! Hugs and kisses (sorry if this is too girly for you, hehe, but that's my nature, lol) to all of my reviewers and anyone who's added me to their alerts and/or favorites – also to readers who haven't done any of that! I've gotten many hits and that surprised me because I didn't think this story would be _that_ good (hope that doesn't sound obnoxious!).

Sorry if this chapter is too choppy, quick, or weird! I just whipped this up an hour ago, though I have been working on this chapter for days, and I don't have time to reread this because I must study for my Spanish test! I just felt like I owed you all a new chapter! Well, I hope you liked this and I will try to update soon! (Next chapter will be a meeting with Noah!)

P.S. If you were all wondering about Chloe and Sirius: I probably will _not_ make them a couple unless people want it.

- Allie

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Spoiler from Chapter 5:

**Warning: Do not read unless you really want to know!**

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"Sorry we're late, Professor," Lily panted heavily, leaning against the door to Professor Dumbledore's office.

"That is quite alright, Miss Evans," Professor Dumbledore replied happily, stroking his exceptionally long white beard. "Good evening Miss Wilkes, Miss Pennington, and Miss Emmett!" the professor greeted the other girls, who all nodded back.

"Good evening, Professor," Nikki chirped.

"Before you four ladies go to London, I must tell you that another will be tagging along. You could say that he is your chaperone, as it was his idea," Professor Dumbledore informed them.

"Of course," Lily smiled, looking up. "Who is our – _no_!"

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	6. The Brown Haired God

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**Define Love For Me** by **AllieFelton**

**Chapter Five: **_The Brown-Haired "God"_

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"Hurry up, we're going to be late!" Lily shrieked as she and her friends raced through the school corridors, trying to find the headmaster's private office. Behind her, Nikki and Chloe were panting and trying to catch up to her as they stopped every now and then to catch their breath. Genevieve, however, was far behind. Just a few minutes ago, her heel had broken and she had somehow forgotten the spell to fix it.

"Correction, we _are_ late," Nikki, gasped, not making things much better for a very stressed Lily. Lily squared her eyes at Nikki but decided to ignore her as she waited for the others to catch up to her.

"For Merlin's sake," Lily groaned. "I'll fix your heel for you once we get to Dumbledore's office, Genevieve!"

"In case you have never experienced it before," Genevieve snapped, "walking with a broken heel feels like you're walking as a cripple!"

"Well 'Cripple', would you mind limping over here faster?" Lily retorted, putting air quotes around the word cripple.

"She's getting a bit cranky, huh?" Nikki whispered to Chloe, who nodded quickly in agreement. Everyone quickly shuffled their feet; Genevieve now took off her heels and was walking barefoot down the corridor, to get to the office.

"Honestly," Lily panted, "does he really have to make his office impossible to find?"

Nikki started feeling the walls, obviously thinking Dumbledore's office was camouflaged, but it was Lily who found it. The entrance was dug into the wall and a gargoyle was stationed there. Lily whispered, "Coffee Toffee," and the gargoyle spiraled up, revealing stairs.

"Hurry!" Lily yelled to the other girls, who were now regretting their decision to tag along.

"If I don't lose at least five pounds from this," Chloe grumbled angrily to Genevieve, "I am going to be so bloody mad!"

All four girls entered the office about five minutes later, all of them out of breath and looking flustered.

"Sorry we're late, Professor," Lily panted heavily, leaning against the door to Professor Dumbledore's office.

"That is quite alright, Miss Evans," Professor Dumbledore replied happily, stroking his exceptionally long white beard. "Good evening Miss Wilkes, Miss Pennington, and Miss Emmett!" the professor greeted the other girls, who all nodded back.

"Good evening, Professor," Nikki chirped.

"Before you four ladies go to London, I must tell you that another will be tagging along. You could say that he is your chaperone, as it was his idea," Professor Dumbledore informed them.

"Of course," Lily smiled, looking up. "Who is our – _no_!"

"What?" Nikki looked at Lily quizzically, then turned toward the direction she was looking and she couldn't help but let out a muffled laugh. The other girls looked too and found themselves laughing hard along with Nikki.

"Guess who," snickered none other than James Potter.

"Why? Why does this happen to _me_?" Lily groaned, now banging her head on the doorsill.

"This ought to be interesting," Genevieve giggled.

"Professor, you can't be serious," Lily gasped, her eyes giving Professor Dumbledore a pleading look. "You know our history!"

"Yes, Miss Evans, I do," Professor Dumbledore said to Lily. "But it has come to my attention that four girls alone in London is quite dangerous, and as Mr. Potter here is quite excellent in the fields of Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts, I thought it would be safer for him to follow. Besides, he's the only one here, besides myself, of course, who is of age and he is permitted to do magic out of the castle."

"I-I-I," Lily squeaked, her eyes were as wide as dinner plates.

"Lily let's just go and forget about James. I mean, he may be our 'baby-sitter' but just remember that if he does any funny business, we'll hex him into the next millennium!" Nikki said supportively, nudging a stammering Lily.

"You're completely right," Genevieve agreed with Nikki.

"Okay, then," Lily sighed. "As long as you guys are watching him twenty-four seven, I'll be fine. But Potter, I am going to keep an eye on you and if you do any – and I mean _any_ – funny business while we're down there, I _will_ hurt you!" Lily hissed.

"Relax," James put his hands up as if surrendering, smiling at Lily. "I won't do anything to your '_fiancé_', Evans. I am just concerned for you girls' personal safety and health."

"This has got to be some fourth-year git on Polyjuice Potion because this is _not_ James Potter," Chloe shook her head.

"Time's wasting," Professor Dumbledore smiled; the twinkle in his eye gave him a grandfatherly look.

"Oh, I was supposed to meet Noah five minutes ago!" Lily squeaked as she walked up to the fireplace. "Evans Estate, London!" Lily shouted into the fire and was absorbed by green flames the next minute.

"Wait a minute! She was supposed to fix my shoe!" Genevieve groaned, throwing her shoes to the side childishly.

"Have you forgotten the spell already, Miss Wilkes?" Professor Dumbledore chuckled as he stroked his beard. He whipped out his wand before saying, "_Reparo_." Immediately the shoes were restored to their original state and a rather embarrassed Genevieve walked up to the fire to go to London. Following her was Chloe, Nikki, and James who all happily waved goodbye to their headmaster.

Once they all reached their destination, they realized that Lily wasn't there and there was much shouting.

"I don't want those _freaks_ living in the same house as me!" a horrible and eerie voice screamed.

"Well, get used to it before I give your oaf of a husband a tail when I turn 17!" a voice, which was most definitely Lily's, shouted.

"Oh, when I get through with –" the first voice hissed.

"I can't believe _you_ are calling _me_ a freak! You're the one that still lives with 'mummy and daddy' after you got _married_!" Lily cried.

"Vernon's going through a financial crisis at the moment," the woman, who the girls identified as Lily's disgusting older sister Petunia, grumbled.

"Hah! No one goes through a financial crisis for two years, Petunia," Lily scoffed.

"Okay, maybe we should step in," James piped up. He started walking when Nikki put out her arm to stop him.

"Only if you want to die," she said.

"What?" James asked.

"Petunia has a – an issue about witches and wizards," Genevieve said.

"_I DON'T WANT THOSE FREAKS IN MY HOUSE!_" they heard Petunia scream once again.

"An Asia sized issue," Chloe muttered, rolling her eyes.

"Last time I was here," Nikki said. She stopped and said, "Well, you really don't want to know."

"It isn't your house, Petunia! Get over yourself!" Lily fought back.

"Okay, maybe stepping in _is_ a good idea," Nikki muttered.

"Sooner we get there, the sooner we get out," Chloe said. The others nodded in agreement and they all stepped in the dining room where they saw Lily and Petunia (who had dirty blonde hair and a horse-like face) glaring each like mad.

"Lily, can we go?" Nikki asked.

"I'd be glad to," Lily smiled at them. Before turning to leave, Lily spoke clearly, "Double, double, toil and trouble, turn Vernon into rubble." With that being said, Lily grabbed her friends by their arms and quickly left, leaving a panicking Petunia in the dining room.

Once they were outside, Chloe asked, "_What_ was _that_?"

Lily laughed, "Oh, Petunia thinks that that is an _actual_ spell and now she thinks I cursed Vernon! Hah!"

"Nice house, Evans," James said as they walked down the sidewalk, looking back once more at Lily's gigantic manor.

"Oh, thanks," Lily waved off his comment.

"Your house looks bigger than last time!" Nikki squealed. "You _have_ to give us a tour later!"

"Sure, and yeah we did some construction," Lily smiled.

"Enough chatter. When is it going to be Noah time?" Genevieve asked. At the name Noah, James cringed but no one took notice.

"In a few seconds. He lives just a few houses away from me, actually. In fact, we met when we were walking our dogs," Lily smiled.

"That's nice," James, said, his voice faraway. Lily glared at him but he was so distracted that she couldn't get his attention. Walking along for a few more minutes, they finally stopped in front of a beautiful and huge beige house. The driveway looked as if it stretched on for miles.

Lily walked up to the intercom beside the big gate and pressed the button. A voice was heard from nowhere, and Nikki and James jumped back, completely unaccustomed to this.

"Benson residence, how may I help you?" the voice asked. It sounded rather snobby and it belonged to a posh sounding man.

"Jeremy, it's Lily," Lily smiled.

"Oh, back already? Come in," and the gate swung open. The group walked up and when they reached the front of the house, they saw a silhouette by the doorway, looking pretty masculine a tall.

"Noah!" Lily shrieked, running up to the guy and hugging him tightly.

"Lily, love, I missed you!" Noah said sweetly. Genevieve, Chloe, and Nikki all 'aww'ed the couple while James made gagging sounds in the background.

"I brought some friends. I hope you don't mind. They sort of invited themselves, actually," Lily waved her hand towards her friends.

"Of course not," Noah said, showing off his perfectly straight, white, and flossed teeth. The girls were absolutely melting inside as they gazed lovingly at Noah. His brown hair and bright blue eyes drew them in and his body – gosh, they could just eat him up.

"L-Lily," Genevieve stuttered.

"He doesn't look –" Nikki stammered.

"_Anything_ like the pictures!" Chloe shrieked excitedly.

"He looks better!" Nikki gasped.

"Oh my gosh, he's like a god!" Genevieve gaped, mouth wide open. Lily looked rather ticked with her friends checking out _her_ man.

Noah gave an embarrassed chuckle (which James mocked jealously behind them) and ruffled his hair, "Thank you, ladies. Come on in." Everybody eagerly followed except for James, who lagged behind.

"Thank you,_ ladies_! While I'm on it, who wants to see my big buff teddy bear and we could all have a great group hug!" James growled. "Girly wimp."

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**Author's Note:** Sorry for the very slow updates. I just came down with a very bad cold and my mother banned me from going on the computer (because of my constant headaches). Trust me, I was dying to type and my fingers were _twitching_ because I wanted to type _that_ much! Anyways, I wrote this chapter completely in longhand and I retyped. Sorry if you think this is pretty bad. I guess you could say my mind was pretty far away when I wrote this. Another late night update so I'm not sure if you'll be reading this until tomorrow (which starts in 50 minutes for me). Anyway, good night!

- Allie

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	7. He's Over You

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**Define Love For Me** by **AllieFelton**

**Chapter Six: **_He's Over You_

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"You just had to do it, didn't you?" Lily glared, grinding her teeth furiously. Many would shiver at the piercing and fierce glower of Lily Evans but James Potter was absolutely untouched and seemed to push it aside. The two were standing just outside of the room where Lily and the girls were staying; both were talking quietly so they wouldn't disturb anybody else in the house.

"I didn't do anything, Evans," James reassured her. Lily's mouth dropped open as she thought, '_How can he lie through his teeth like that?_' The hallway was dark and cold; it was one of the many long corridors in Noah's mansion. Lily pulled her bathrobe on tighter over her pajamas.

"Don't act all nonchalant and cool," Lily hissed, "because you're not!"

"Whoa, what's up with you today?" James asked. This only caused Lily to glare at him harder, if that were possible. How could he possibly not know what he had done after _humiliating_ her and making her sound so awful in front of her fiancé!

"What's up with _me_ today? What's up with me?" Lily murmured quietly, afraid she would start yelling at any moment now. "Do you realize how much you humiliated me today? Did you know that after your little charade, Noah asked me if I was having an _affair_?"

"He's a slimy git anyway," James, said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What was that?" Lily snapped.

"Nothing."

The two remained standing for a while longer, silence engulfing the atmosphere. Thoughts of the past few hours were clawing at Lily's mind. She groaned in frustration, as she couldn't get it out of her head.

* * *

_**Flashback (Two Hours Ago)**_

"_So who is that fellow?" Noah asked Lily when the two were in the kitchen, making their own snacks (which was rare in Noah's house since he had maids, butlers, and more but Lily insisted). "You keep avoiding his name."_

"_Oh. That's just – Potter. James Potter, I mean" Lily said coolly. She started chopping the carrots angrily when she remembered that James was just in the other room. How could she possibly survive the weekend with that overconfident, self-absorbed, and annoying git?_

"_Anything wrong, love?" Noah asked, sensing Lily's sudden mood swing._

"_Oh, nothing at all!" Lily said quickly, looking up to show him that she was smiling._

"_Uh-huh, right," Noah, said with disbelief._

"_Okay, let's just bring the snacks back in. We've been chopping these vegetables forever and I _know_ Nikki is probably eating the table by now," Lily giggled. She quickly grabbed all the food they had chopped and threw them onto the plate messily, quickly setting the dip on the side. Before Noah could ask anymore questions, Lily quickly slipped into the living room, announcing, "Food!"_

_Nikki immediately grabbed at them and in between bites, she managed to say, "Why healthy foods, Lily? Why?"_

"_Well, you're enjoying it so you shouldn't be the one to complain," Lily smiled._

"_True," Nikki shut up. Noah returned into the room with the refreshments and James suddenly made it his duty to become Zelda Pruitt (a famous magic reporter who asked an unbelievable amount of questions)._

"_Noah, huh?" James said, stepping between Noah and Lily. Lily looked annoyed but returned to chatting with her friends, keeping one eye on James._

"_Yes," Noah smiled, extending his right hand. "Nice to meet you, James." James took Noah's hand and firmly shook it._

"_You a football fan, Noah?" James asked, stuffing his mouth with carrots and broccoli. (In America, football is soccer)._

"_Yes. I'm quite a fanatic actually," Noah said, about to launch into a very 'interesting' conversation about football, thinking he had found a fellow football fan. "England is doing quite well in the –" _

"_How old are you, Noah?" James asked, cutting into what was about to become a very long and boring lecture._

"_20-years-old," Noah responded, ruffling his charming brown hair (which annoyed James because that was what _he_ did), "and you?"_

_James gaped Noah and excused himself, scurrying over to Lily and whispering, "20? He's _20_? You're 17! That's disgusting, Evans! It's like marrying your grandfather!"_

_Lily let out a low growl before muttering to James, "I don't know how old your grandfather is, Potter, but mine is 85!" With that being said, Lily turned back to talking to her friends, leaving Noah completely vulnerable to be interrogated by James._

"_So how did you and Lily meet?" James asked curiously, sipping his drink._

"_Well, our houses are pretty close together so one day when we were both walking our dogs, we happened to –"_

"_She's great you know," James cut in once again._

_Noah stared at James blankly and said, "Sorry?"_

"_Don't you feel like time's just stopped when you're with her?" James said, obviously in his own world now._

"_Excuse me but are you talking about Lily Evans, my fiancée?" Noah asked curiously. His thoughts were now drifting to other things. Had this strange man that he had met only that day ever been with his Lily? Or was he with Lily? His mind started racing at 100 mph when James finally said, "Yes."_

* * *

"Evans, you're overreacting," James finally broke the silence, rolling his eyes, and shoving his hands into his pockets. "I barely said three words to him."

"Three words or three extremely crucial _sentences_?" Lily huffed.

"Choice B?" James smiled, hoping to lighten the atmosphere – which didn't work, by the way.

"I swear," Lily muttered.

"Didn't quite catch that," James said, looking into Lily's mesmerizing green eyes. "Okay, fine. I'm sorry. Are you happy now? Will you just tell me what 'Prince Charming' said to you?"

Lily's eyes flashed a dangerous red before she explained; "Well he tracked me down after dinner tonight and told me about your _interesting_ conversation. He told me how dazed you were and how you asked him, '_isn't she so amazing?_' and all that usual rubbish you repeatedly talk about. Then he told me how he somehow got the idea that I _fancied_ you or something and worst of all: he then asked me if I was having an _affair_ with _you_!"

"Hmm, can't disagree with that idea, I'd have to say," James said bluntly, earning more hard looks from Lily. With a sigh, James finally said, "Okay, this time I am being honest. I'm sorry, Evans – err, Lily. I'm sorry, Lily. I didn't really mean for me to say that. I honestly was not going to interfere with you and your _fiancé _but I that stuff is inscribed in my subconscious!"

Lily let out a laugh. James really could be entertaining.

"This isn't some joke, Lily," James sighed. He tousled his messy black hair and shoved his hands back into his pocket. "If he really did make you happy, I was going to let you alone – even if I couldn't have you. I'd rather live my life knowing that I made you happy then live knowing that I forced the love of my life to be with me because I scared away anyone else that she loved more."

Lily froze, she felt her facial expressions soften up and something about what James had said made her heart melt. Could he really be telling the truth and – "Hold on a second!" Lily held up her hand to stop James from continuing to talk. "Did you just say 'love of your life'?"

James was silent for a moment before saying, "Yes." Before Lily could say another word, James turned around and went to his room, quickly, but silently, closing the door behind him. Lily was frozen to her spot and felt numb. What James had said really touched her and she couldn't help but feel like a moron for saying such harsh things to him. Maybe it really was a slip of the tongue. Or maybe Noah had exaggerated. Who knew? With a final sigh of frustration, Lily returned to her room and slipped into bed.

* * *

o – o – o – o – o

The five returned to Hogwarts the following Sunday after a very exciting weekend. Lily had yet to tell her friends about her midnight conversation with James and she was planning to tell them that night. James had managed to avoid Lily during the rest of the stay so she got to spend some time alone with Noah, her friends more than happy to leave the two to do some "bonding" (which in there terms meant snogging each other senseless).

In the Great Hall, dinner was served and Lily felt relaxed there. Something about being cooped up with Potter in Noah's house (besides the times when Noah took her out to an opera, surprised her with a moonlit carriage ride, and a concert for extremely talented classical music players) was overwhelming and she was relieved to be back in Hogwarts where there were a few thousand classrooms to separate them if she wanted.

"Well I don't know what you did to Prongs, Prongsette, but thank you," a voice said from behind Lily, obviously Sirius Black as he was the only one that called her Prongsette. Suddenly, Lily felt Sirius squeeze in between her and Chloe and he slung his arms around the two girls.

"What are you talking about, Black?" Lily sighed, continuing to cut her steak into strips.

"Ever since you got back from the trip, Prongs has been shutting up quite nicely," Sirius smiled, grabbing a spoon and shoveling mashed potato into his mouth as fast as the Hogwarts Express.

"Come again?" Chloe asked, shoving Sirius away from her as he spit out his food on her.

"Prongs hasn't talked about Evans here _once_ since he got back! Think Santa got my wish list this year?" Sirius smiled, moving onto the ever-messier tomatoes.

"Sirius, will you _please_ go back to your seat before you drown poor Chloe over there with your unusually large amount of saliva?" Genevieve raised an eyebrow, trying to save her friend.

"Sure," Sirius said, grabbing a big plate of pudding, "but I'm taking this. We ran out over there. Poor Peter – don't know how the bloke's going to make it through the night." And with that, Sirius fled off to his seat.

"Think they're getting stranger?" Nikki asked.

"Oh, yes, definitely!" Genevieve and Chloe quickly agreed. Nikki, Genevieve, and Chloe returned to their dinners and started their conversations again but Lily stayed out (not that her friends noticed much). Had she upset James that much?

"I'm going to go up early," Lily announced, pushing aside her plate and standing up.

"Oh, why?" Nikki asked, looking suspicious.

"No reason," Lily said, quickly sauntering out. While on her way walking out, she slowed down at James' spot but found he wasn't there. Concluding that asking the present Marauders where James was absolutely pointless, as they were like parrots, she walked out of the Great Hall (not noticing that Remus was also missing).

As she walked further down the corridor, on the route to Gryffindor Tower, she heard voices from behind one of the rusty knights that lined the way. Quietly, she sneaked her way over and listened in on the conversation.

"And I'm over her," a male voice said. This voice sounded familiar – one that she had heard throughout the course of her years at Hogwarts. The voice was that of James Potter.

………………………………………………………….

**Author's Note:** Well, I'm not sure what you thought of the ending but I'm sure many of you are disappointed. I would hate to ruin the ending, which I'm sure this partly will do, but I'm pretty sure this will remain as a Lily/James story as originally planned. I am in the process of writing the first chapter for a new plot bunny idea I had! It is an anti-Lily/James story and I am pretty sure I am going to publish it on this site! Oh, and I must apologize to you all for my very slow updates and for rushing this chapter a bit. I don't have much time to proofread this now. I think I'll have to get a beta or something – not sure. But if I do need a beta, it'll be nice to know I have someone there, if you get the hint, (wink, hehe). And thanks for all the fantastic reviews! And I have to say I really do love you all! I'm on 43 alert lists! Thanks so much! Next chapter should be up soon and this I swear!

- Allie

………………………………………………………….


	8. Feeling Betrayed

………………………………………………………….

**Define Love For Me** by **AllieFelton**

**Chapter Seven: **_Feeling Betrayed_

………………………………………………………….

The following week was extremely awkward for James and Lily. They had avoided each other as if their lives had depended upon it. Lily didn't know why but she felt so upset at the fact that James was over her. After hearing those dreaded words ("And I'm over her"), Lily felt glued to the spot she was standing and no matter how great an urge she had to run, she couldn't move; forcing herself to listen to more of that stupid conversation!

* * *

_**Flashback (One Week Ago)**_

"_Are you really over her James? I remember you told me this at _least_ twenty times in second year. Remember when she had taken to literally hexing the pants off of you? That was rather amusing," Remus chuckled. Second year was so full of great times!_

"_This time I'm serious, Moony," James, muttered, Lily could hear him shuffling his feet. "As much as I hate to say it . . . she's not worth all the pain I feel. Okay, maybe she _is_ but I can't take it anymore!" James let out an infuriated groan._

"_It's alright," Lily heard Remus say, while he was patting James on the back, "You'll find another girl."_

_Lily balled her hands into fists and shoved them into her pocket so that she wouldn't do anything rash. Oh, if she were anywhere near Remus Lupin and that moment (possibly on a very steep crevice on Mount Everest) – well, let's just say that it wouldn't be very pretty. Who told him that he had the right to tell James what to do and what _not_ to do?_

"_Wait, what are you going on about Evans?" she asked herself. Awkwardly, Lily started twisting the engagement ring on her ring finger and her stomach twisted into a million knots. She felt so guilty about what she was doing (if she knew _what_ she was doing) and she felt as if she were cheating on Noah._

_Suddenly, Lily's eyes widened in realization. She quickly slid to the ground, her back stuck to the wall, and she placed her face in her hands as she muttered disappointedly, "I actually like that git."_

_The chatter between the two men started up again and Lily hastily left before she could hear anything else that would be heart wrenching. Was this the way James felt? _Bad Lily! Stop it right now! You _don't_ like him! You _don't_ want him! You _do_ want Noah so stop thinking about Potter that way! _Lily scolded herself in her mind as she scuttled away._

* * *

"I swear," Nikki, grumbled angrily as she balanced the piles of textbooks in her arms, the ones that wouldn't fit in her bag, "I am going to kill that old hag one day!"

"Professor Greene isn't that bad, you know," Lily said, tossing her light bag over her shoulders. The two were looking for Genevieve and Chloe so they could walk to lunch together but couldn't seem to find them anywhere (which only agitated Nikki).

"Easy for you, Lillian Abigail Evans, Head Girl and official teacher's pet, to say! She gave you _no_ homework! And why, you ask? Because you gave her a bloody apple!" Nikki's nostrils flared angrily. Not a very flattering look for the willowy brunette.

"She's generous, isn't she?" Lily taunted Nikki, giggling.

"Shut up," Nikki growled. "Where are those two nitwits?"

"I'm 100 sure that this is just the angry homework beast Nikki talking but," Lily sighed, stopping Nikki before she could go stalking and rampaging the halls, "this has got to stop!"

"Whatever," Nikki grumbled.

The two girls continued walking and conveniently passed the Marauders (who were, perhaps, the people Lily wanted to see least). Lily saw Peter cowering in the back, though she was not sure why. He looked a bit frightened and his already abnormally large eyes were now twice its usual weird size.

"Prongsette!" Sirius smiled, swooping over to give Lily a hug.

"Sirius," Lily rolled her eyes, pushing Sirius away from her, "as much as I love receiving random hugs from you, umm, yeah. That's got to stop."

"Whatever," Sirius shrugged, slinging his arms around her. "But you know what's opposite of hugs?" Lily shook her head as soon as Sirius started making puckering noises.

Eyes as wide as Peter's, Lily immediately added, "Hugs are good!"

"Someone's had way too much caffeine," Nikki scoffed.

"Anyways, we were hoping to bump into you, Lily," Remus said. He started pushing James to the front of the group so that he could face Lily. "James actually wanted to talk to you about something."

Lily's heart started thumping at two hundred miles per hour. She really did not need to talk with James right now. Trying to think of a way to get out of it, Lily quickly muttered a spell and the second after, she heard someone calling, "Lily!"

"Oh, it's Regina," Lily smiled, looking over at another of her friends across the Marauders shoulders. "I should go. She really needs me. Bye!"

Lily quickly pulled away without stopping for Nikki and ran to her friend Regina Walker.

"Thank you so much, Gina!" Lily smiled, hugging her friend tightly.

"No problem," Regina smiled. The two girls pulled out their wands and gently tapped their two wands together (sort of like a secret handshake). "If you ever need any more help, just buzz me through my wand!"

Regina and Lily, though not the best of the best friends, were pretty close. They helped each other out through tough times and had developed a method. Whenever they saw one another nearby when they needed to be pulled from a sticky situation, they buzzed each other on their wands (when they buzzed each other, they wands started vibrating and emitting blue sparks), using a made up spell called _Tocius_, and the other was supposed to call them to get them out.

"Why have you been avoiding James?" a voice surprised Lily, causing her to jump. She turned around to see it was just Nikki, who had ditched her books and caught up with Lily.

Desperate for a change of subject, Lily quickly asked, "What happened to your books?"

"I forgot I was magic for a minute there," Nikki smiled. Then she became serious, "But seriously, _why_?"

"Why what?" Lily asked, examining her nails as if they were the most fascinating things in the world. Quickly, looking over Nikki's shoulders, Lily relaxed when she saw that the Marauders had left.

"You know what," Nikki sighed. "Just answer the question!"

Lily bit her lip. Nikki, after all, was her best friend and she deserved to know the truth. On the other hand . . . Nikki had quite a big mouth when she wasn't careful and wasn't the best at interpretation. She always twisted the meanings of things she was told (not purposely though, of course). While battling her inner self, Lily decided to tell Nikki the truth. She ended up blurting out the whole situation, from the midnight talk at Noah's house to last week when she heard that blasted conversation.

Nikki just nodded, looking at her friend in a new light. With a smile spreading on her face, she said, "You like him."

"You don't say!" Lily gasped sarcastically. "Of course I bloody like him! But that's the problem. I can't and I won't! Well, I can't say I won't because I already have – am I confusing you, Nikki?" Nikki nodded, the words rearranging themselves in her head to form complete babble.

"I think a hearing aid would be nice," Nikki giggled.

"No doubt you need one," Lily smiled.

"But wow Lily," Nikki breathed, or more like ranted. "I can't believe you're finally falling for him! We've all been telling you for years that you two belong together! I mean, he's actually been acting much more like a git ever since he found out you were engaged and all but still! Actually . . . I'm not sure what attracted you to him? His bad boy side of him, his physical traits, his personality – which I must say is quite funny, Lily -, or maybe you're just a sucker for guys who won't give up! Oh, but it doesn't help that he said he's over you, now does it? Maybe if –"

"Stop talking, Nikki!" Lily sighed. "Merlin, how can one person talk so much, and so fast, in half a minute?"

"It's a gift," Nikki smiled.

"But let's not talk about this anymore. It's all wrong! I love _Noah_, not James, Hogwarts' own personal playboy," Lily told Nikki, but as if she were trying to convince herself. Suddenly the girls' stomachs were heard growling and Lily groaned, "Let's find those two prats before we starve!"

"Wait, I think I hear someone," Nikki said, hushing Lily. She moved closer to the source of noise and said, "I think it sounds like Genevieve."

The two girls walked over to where Genevieve was and they soon found themselves gawking at the sight of their best friend and Lily's hidden crush swapping spit.

………………………………………………………….

**Author's Note: **I think I've got a thing going for late night updates! I always seem to update at the end of the day, lol. Hmm, this is a slow moving chapter but I, for some odd reason, like it. Oh, and I must ask: Remember how I wrote, 'this I swear' in my last author's note? Is that a Nick Lachey song? For some reason, it popped into my mind yesterday and I just said, "What the heck?" and wrote it in! Okay, sorry that was a bit random! The ending of this is a bit more suspenseful than the last but this half answers some of your 'will James really be over Lily in the next chapter?' questions.

Oh, and if you want some other random news – I am completely traumatized. I was almost hit by a car today while I was walking home from school. See, on my way home, there is this crazy busy intersection that I have to cross! So, the green light was on for me to walk (I walked vertically and so the car that almost ran me over had a red light on) and I started walking when I heard the engine revving! Being my complete idiotic self, I paused and then ran for dear life. I was about an _inch_ away from the car when the driver finally stopped, leaned out the window, and said, "Sorry!" and then drove off. He was also smiling like a maniac.

Crazy world isn't it?

- Allie

………………………………………………………….

**Bloopers:**

Okay, this is some totally random idea I had (which I copyright because I have never seen anyone doing this on -fanfiction dot net- doing this and if you would like to put this in yours, I would appreciate it if you asked permission) and this is where I am going to put all the mistakes I made in the chapter while writing it (before my final edit, of course). Some are amusing and some are just weird, so bear with me!

#1) _"Are you really over her James? I remember you gave me at _least_ twenty limes in second year. Remember when she had taken to pulling the pants off of you? That was rather amusing," Remus chuckled._ (I have no idea how this one got so random! I remember singing the coke commercial; you put the lime in the coke you nut!)

#2) _"I swear," Nikki, grumbled angrily as she balanced the piles of textbooks in her arms, the ones that wouldn't fit in her bag, "I am going to eat an old bag one day!"_ (This is quite random too, hehe, sorry!)

And that's all the bloopers I have for now :)


	9. Handling the Truth

………………………………………………………….

**Define Love For Me** by **AllieFelton**

**Chapter Eight: **_Handling the Truth_

………………………………………………………….

The following day was a Friday, and also a Hogsmeade weekend. Chloe, Lily, and Nikki (Genevieve conveniently had a detention from the following night for being out after hours – perhaps going for another snog with James?) sat in their carriage and discussed the possibilities of where to go. Well, at least Chloe and Lily, because Nikki had to write an eighteen-inch essay for Potions.

"I don't think I even know that many words!" Nikki complained, slouching in her seat. Her medium light brown hair was sprawled around her shoulder and gave her a messy, yet pretty, look.

"Stop your moaning," Lily rolled her eyes, checking her bags to see if she had any gift certificates to any of the stores stashed in her backpack.

"Easy for you to say," Nikki grumbled, crossing her arms. "You won't be sitting in a dark and grungy corner in the Three Broomsticks scratching up useless words on a topic that you may never come to cross again!"

"True," Chloe cut in, "but at least we'll buy you some nice dress robes for this year's Yule Ball!"

"I'd rather do that myself, thank you," Nikki sniffed.

Nikki took out an abnormally long piece of parchment and began writing her essay, occasionally letting out a whine when their carriage started getting bumpy. Chloe and Lily looked through their _Witch Weekly_ to see what to buy and what not to buy. At Hogwarts, _Witch Weekly_ was almost the equivalent of the Bible to the female population.

"I should buy new school supplies, too," Lily pondered, taking out a piece of stationary that had a few notes on them. "The ones I have right now are so torn apart and unkempt it's scary!"

"What are you talking about?" Chloe asked, looking at Lily peculiarly. "Your notebooks look as if you bought them yesterday! Might I also add your schoolbooks, which you greedily keep to yourself even when others are in need."

The three girls laughed when Chloe referred to that "incident". It was widely known that Lily was rather obsessive when it came to school and her school material. Once in third year, Chloe was in desperate need of a Charms book and thought it best to ask Lily (who was known to have spares) but ended up getting a poor grade on her class assignment because Lily would not give up her books.

"If only that had been Genevieve instead," Nikki accidentally let her tongue slip. Catching her mistake, her hand went immediately to her mouth and she giggled, "Whoops!"

"Nikki!" Lily groaned, placing her head in her hands.

"What do you mean?" Chloe asked suspiciously. Chloe had always been closer to Genevieve than the rest of the group, which was no secret. Before Hogwarts, Genevieve and Chloe had been best friends while Lily and Nikki did not know any of them.

"I really would like to forget about that," Lily grumbled.

"Forget what?" Chloe asked, annoyed that she wasn't in on the situation.

Lily glared at Nikki angrily, not wanting to talk about what had happened the night before (especially to the friend that had been the most pro-Lily-and-James), but she quickly exhaled, "I saw Genevieve and James snogging."

"Oh," Chloe said, not looking a bit surprised.

"Please, hold in your excitement," Nikki rolled her eyes.

"Well," Chloe said, digging into her bag for something, "it's just not surprising, is all."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked.

Chloe stopped rummaging through her bag to gape up at Lily. With her mouth wide open, she asked, "Are you serious?"

"Serious about what?" Lily questioned innocently.

"Genevieve _has_ been jealous of you forever and I was wondering when she was going to do something like this," Chloe said as if it was the most common knowledge in the world.

"I didn't know this," Lily whispered. She sat back in her seat, staring into space. Then, a slow two minutes later, she asked dully, "What's she jealous of?"

"Oh, everything," Chloe said as she looked behind the curtains of the carriage, to see if they were at Hogsmeade yet.

"Everything as in . . ." Nikki piped in.

"Lily's beauty, her tendency to be a boy magnet, how rich she is, etc," Chloe stated. "Honestly, I'm surprised to see that you two are so shocked at her deviousness. Remember last year? She stole almost all of Sandi Lyle's boyfriends because Sandi's father got the promotion meant for Genevieve's father."

"And you're not bothered by this?" Lily asked in awe.

"Lily, I've known her way too long to give up our friendship because she messes with other people. That's her business not mine. Besides, she's done nothing to me," Chloe nodded.

"I'm confused, but whatever," Nikki sighed.

"But she's still with Gregory! She can't just go around kissing other guys while her boyfriend is being victimized," Lily shouted.

"Who says he's the victim?" Chloe shrugged. "Almost everybody at Hogwarts knows that Genevieve and Gregory are only together because of their hourly make-outs. Genevieve is my best friend and all but, if you called her a slut I would not disagree."

Lily contemplated the facts in her head. What had happened to her sweet friend Genevieve? The Genevieve that was fashion-obsessed, good for a laugh, great at giving advice, and loyal. Was she just a made up doll to attract attention? Lily was so confused.

"But from what I hear, from your tone of voice," Chloe chuckled, "it sounds like someone has a little crush on Mr. Potter."

Lily opened her mouth to protest but found no words coming out.

"Ah-ha! Not even protesting," Chloe smiled.

"It's just because –" Lily started.

"You like James, you like James, you like James," Chloe sang happily.

"Shut up, shut up," Lily grumbled.

"Both of you shut up! I'm trying to write my essay!" Nikki huffed.

Lily and Chloe laughed as they watched their best friend struggle with finding long words to fill up the parchment and all thoughts of Genevieve and James were washed away from Lily's mind.

………………………………………………………….

The aisles of the store were empty and dusty. Outdated books published years and years ago sat on the shelves waiting to be sold. Lily ran her finger over one of them and almost retched at how much dust accumulated on her finger.

"Looking for something, Miss?" a sly voice asked from behind.

"Oh, no," Lily said as she took one of the older books off the shelf, its spine cracking and pages tearing out of it, "just looking."

"Would you be looking for the _Walthall Paraglum _theory?" the person, who turned out to be a greasy-haired hunchback, asked. His teeth were so crooked, his arms so oddly thin, and his eyes popped out so much that it made Lily want to puke at the sight of him.

"Umm, no, I don't think so," Lily said naively.

"Mudblood," the man spit on the ground. "Out! OUT!"

Alarmed, Lily dropped the book and was pushed out the door by the man, who slammed the door shut behind her. When she was out, Lily toppled onto someone.

"Sorry," Lily gasped, picking herself up. The person she pushed over got up and dusted himself off. "Why do I always run into him?" Lily whispered to herself so that James wouldn't hear.

"Barmy codger. Did he kick you out?" James asked rather angrily.

"That is none of your business," Lily said snootily.

"Evans, I'm not going to have that prejudiced madman do that to you," James walked up to the front door and started banging on it, as the door was locked.

"Look, Potter," Lily huffed, "I don't need you sticking up for me!"

"But that –"

"Stay out of it!" Lily shrieked, attracting the attention of many shoppers on the street.

"Geez, Evans, I'm just trying to help," James frowned.

"Bet that didn't even cross your mind when you were kissing my best friend yesterday," Lily grunted.

"Y-you saw?" James asked guiltily.

Lily glared at him, "Yes."

"Look. She's the one that kissed me. I had nothing to –"

"It didn't seem that way by the pure look of joy on your face!"

"You don't understand," James muttered.

"Don't I?" Lily asked. With a huff, she turned away on her heels and started to walk back into the central part of the village where she was to meet Chloe and Nikki, leaving James alone.

………………………………………………………….

**Author's Note:** Wow, I haven't updated in forever! I am so sorry about that! What's it been? 10 days? I feel really horrible about that and I hope I'll get the next chapter up sooner. It's just that I've been under stress and I found this chapter very hard to write. Maybe it is because I've never been in this situation . . . who knows? But in truth, I think this chapter came out pretty well considering the situation I've been in. Trust me, I've been feeling horrible about not getting this out sooner! Oh, and thank you for all the nice reviews! You guys rock! I stopped replying to them for a while but starting this chapter on, I'll continue them!

Oh, and someone wanted to know how to pronounce Genevieve: _Jen-Uh-Veev_

Does that help?

Oh, and this may sound like I care about how many reviews I get (remember I told you I don't in the 1st chapter?) but it is nothing like that. Its just a little thing I saw on someone else's fanfiction (I don't remember who so I can't give credit, I'm sorry). I need some extra names for some following chapters! If you are the following reviewer, you'll get:

**100th reviewer – semi-main role in _DLFM_**

**110th reviewer – walk-on role in _DLFM_**

**150th reviewer – semi-crucial role in _DLFM_**

These reviews don't have to be for this week! Of course I don't expect 60 reviews for one chapter! I'm just saying that throughout the period of time :) Hehe, I just thought this would be fun and I won't have to go through the trouble of picking names.

- Allie

P.S. If you wanted to know what _"Would you be looking for the _Walthall Paraglum_ theory?"_ this quote means: This is just something I made up to help the plot. When asked this, this basically is code from one pureblood to another asking if they are muggleborn or not. This is not actually in the real _Harry Potter_ series.

_E D I T_

10/31/06

**_Happy Halloween_**! I didn't feel like adding a new page just for this so I decided to write it here! I just came back from Trick-or-Treating and it was so much fun! I have so much! I foresee many dentist trips :)

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	10. Meet Michelle

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**Define Love For Me** by **AllieFelton**

**Chapter Nine: **_Meet Michelle_

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"Mr. Potter," cut in the strict voice of Professor McGonagall, "if you would be so kind as to shut your mouth!"

"Sure can do, Professor," James smiled charmingly. Professor McGonagall let out a growling noise but James knew that inside she couldn't resist his charm. All the teachers, no matter if they wanted it or not, had a soft spot for the troublemaking Marauders, one of the great advantages of being one.

"Teacher's pet," cough Sirius, who usually sat next to James. Ignoring his friend's comment, James returned to what he was doing before he was so rudely interrupted (maybe not rude, but still), but he found that extremely difficult to do as Sirius kept trying to look over his shoulder to see what he was doing.

"Get off me, you homosexual git," James teased.

"Just want to see what you're doing, Mate," Sirius said, still trying to make his eyes find contact with James' notebook, wanting to see what James was writing.

"Mr. Black, please keep your hands to yourself," Professor McGonagall snapped, causing the whole class to erupt in an explosion of _oohs_!

"I'd love to," Sirius smiled back to Professor McGonagall, dramatically moving away from James.

"Thank you for that nice little production, Mr. Black," the professor rolled her eyes, showing her disapproval but letting a smile slip. Just for the fun of it, Sirius poked James once more (exaggerating quite a bit) and then slipped back into his seat, still eyeing whatever James had in front of him.

"Just writing notes," James hissed to Sirius, covering his notebook with his arm.

"James Potter writing notes?" Sirius gasped.

"Could happen," James shrugged.

"But not today."

"Mind your own business," James huffed.

Sirius nodded. He turned to face the board, where McGonagall was writing some _interesting_ notes and calculations on how to transfigure a living animal into a temporary human being (like a reverse animagus). Not even two minutes passed when Sirius discreetly pulled out his wand, pointed it at James' book, and muttered, "_Accio notebook_!"

"Hey!" James yelled as the pad slipped through his arms.

"All mine," Sirius, grinned slyly. Pushing away from James, who was viciously trying to claw his way through to retrieve his notebook, Sirius quickly checked to see if Professor McGonagall was looking his way (which she wasn't because she was so absorbed in today's lesson). With a big smile, Sirius flipped open to the last page, which was obviously the one James was working on, and started reading it. After a few moments of silence, Sirius started snickering, his face turning slightly red, and before you knew it, he was full out laughing in front of the whole class.

"Mr. Black!" Professor McGonagall jeered; she walked up to Sirius' desk and, to James' horror, grabbed the notebook. "Having a note passing parade with Mr. Potter are we? You know the policy. You two will come for detention tonight at 8:30 sharp and I will have the pleasure of reading this little section aloud."

"P-P-Professor," James stuttered, wide-eyed, "you don't think that-that that's a bit rash?"

"No, I think it is perfectly suitable Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall adjusted her spectacles and brought the notebook up so that she could read it. She cleared her throat and began, "_She is so beautiful, I can't stand being in the same room as her and knowing that I can't have her. Why can't she understand how I feel instead of always pushing it aside like its some diseased object? She wouldn't like being in my position, now would she? Always trying so hard to get someone to love you but knowing that it will never bloody work! And now Sirius, being the git he is, is looking over me trying to find out what I am writing. If he knew I was writing in this, let's call it uh, a, uh – _man book – _he'd wet himself. Why can't I just get her to love me? Why can't –_ Oh, that is all our darling Mr. Potter has written."

James buried his head as the entire class, which conveniently was a double Transfiguration class with Slytherin, burst into laughter. He could hear the chuckles of his most hated enemy, Severus Snape or _Snivellus_, and another Slytherin clone, and possibly future death eater, Lucius Malfoy.

"Ah," sniggered Bellatrix Black, a Sirius' evil and twisted cousin (how they could biologically be related was unknown), "does baby Jamsie want his wiwykins to 'understand stand his feewings?'"

"Shut up, Black!" Remus cried from across the room, obviously sympathizing with his friend.

"How dare you talk to me, you filthy half-breed," Bellatrix hissed.

"He wasn't talking about Lily," Sirius told Bellatrix, as if denying it would make everything better.

"Then whom _was_ he talking about?" Nikki, who sat next to a red-faced Lily, asked.

"Uh, well, uh… M-M-Michelle!" Sirius stammered.

"Michelle Richmond?!" Nikki and Lily choked out at the same time. Almost automatically, everybody's heads turned to look at a scrawny Gryffindor 7th year, who was only 15 but had moved up.

"Yeah," Sirius said dumbly.

"Black, I'm going to _murder_ you," James growled, hitting Sirius over the head with his hand.

"You should be thanking me for saving your sorry hide," Sirius grumbled, crinkling his nose.

"Saving my sorry hide? Now everyone thinks I'm into _her_," James nodded in Michelle's direction. Michelle, who had turned a bright red and now was toying with her tawny blonde hair, quickly concealed her face from everyone's view by obscuring it into her Transfigurations textbook.

"Mr. Black, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall said harshly. "My office tonight at 8:30 for a five-hour detention!"

"But I have quidditch practice!" James squeaked.

"Well you should have thought about your quidditch practice before you interrupted my class," Professor McGonagall said sharply. With that said, she returned to her lesson. James stared daggers at Sirius and attempted to hide his face from the staring eyes of the class. Oh, what he was going to do to Sirius when Transfigurations was over.

* * *

o – o – o – o – o

"What else was I supposed to do?" Sirius whined. Sirius, Remus, and James were standing out in the corridor on their way to lunch. James had taken to punching Sirius constantly since the end of Transfigurations as he didn't know what else to do with his frustration.

"Stay quiet? Shut your yap?" James suggested.

"Besides that," Sirius coughed guiltily. He started walking away from Remus and James when James pulled him back.

"Black, I'd hex you into oblivion if I weren't standing next to a prefect," James nodded towards Remus.

"And if you weren't Head Boy, if you have forgotten," Remus reminded him. James shrugged.

"Since when has little Jamesy cared about the rules?" Sirius laughed. He immediately stopped his chuckling when James whipped out his wand. "Um, right. I'm going to go to the Great Hall now. See you later!"

Sirius dashed down the corridor as fast as he could (ensuring the fact that James would not be able to catch him). Letting out yet another moan of anger, James punched the nearest wall (which was made of solid rock) with his fist. He didn't even so much as wince when the mineral cut into his skin.

Remus looked over James' shoulder and quickly said, "I'd better go get some lunch too."

James frowned as his friend left him alone but quickly understood why when he turned around to see Michelle Richmond standing there awkwardly. Michelle, shaking like a leaf, gathered up the courage to say, "Hello."

"Hi," James stated. The two stood there for a moment before they started talking at the same time. James trying to explain his actions and Michelle questioning him about what had happened before. Finding it funny, they both started laughing.

"I'm sorry about Sirius," James rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "He can be rather stupid."

"Its alright," Michelle reassured him. Not wanting to be in silence again, Michelle quickly said, "I should go. Bye."

"No, wait!" James jumped up before Michelle could leave. Michelle stopped, quite startled. "I should at least walk you to lunch for all the trouble Sirius has caused.

"Oh, no," Michelle said nervously, her insides fluttering as the handsome Gryffindor talked to her. "I'll be fine walking by myself."

"I don't think so," James said. In a daring move, James walked to the side of Michelle and extended his arm. After staring at it for a while, Michelle quickly got what she was supposed to do, blushed, and graciously took it.

* * *

o – o – o – o – o

Lily bit into her grilled cheese sandwich when she felt a nudge to her side. She turned around to see Chloe nodding towards the entrance of the Great Hall mouthing, "Whore alert." Without even turning around Lily knew that Chloe was talking about Genevieve and continued eating, not wanting a full confrontation at that moment. Suddenly Lily felt another poke to her side, this time from Nikki, and sighed.

"What?" Lily asked.

"Look over there," Nikki pointed to the entrance, past Genevieve.

Lily turned around and what she saw made her freeze. Walking into the Great Hall, arms linked together, was James and Michelle, laughing at each other's jokes.

"So he really _did_ like her?" Chloe gasped.

"Oh wow, Lily –" Nikki said.

Lily put up her hand to stop her friend. With a smile, she said, "Don't worry about it. I'm fine."

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**Author's Note:** Well, this chapter is really just a whole bunch of randomness jumbled together to sort of tie the last chapter and the chapter to come together. I'm sorry if you didn't like it! Oh, and my 100th reviewer was MiKaYGiRl: Thank you! And since she didn't respond to my reply about that little contest thing, I added the name. _To MiKaYGiRl: I looked at your profile and took your name (where Michelle Richmond came from) because you were my 100th reviewer. I hope you don't mind because you didn't really answer back so I'll change Michelle's name if you want me to:) _To everyone else: Thank you for the reviews and I'll try to get into an updating rhythm!

- Allie

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